The influence of choline chloride on murine hematopoiesis in vivo and in vitro.

We report here studies to further document the ability of cholinergic agonists to influence murine hematopoiesis. B6C3F1 mice were administered ultrapure choline (0.14, 1.4, and 7.0 mg/animal) i.p. for three days, then randomly sacrificed for assessment of hematological parameters. No significant change was observed in the packed red cell volume; however, the WBC was elevated significantly (85-400%) over noncholine administered controls during all days examined [1-12]. In vitro choline (10 mM) increased heterogeneous marrow-derived CFU-GM colony formation 210% above controls. Nonadherent marrow cell-derived CFU-GM produced a significant elevation in colony formation (36%), suggesting choline may influence directly a portion of the CFU-GM population. A twofold increase in the CFU-GM kill after 16 mM hydroxyurea exposure suggests choline can stimulate a subpopulation of CFU-GM not normally in cell cycle. In addition, choline (10 mM) was effective in stimulating CSF activity from marrow-derived conditioned medium. Dose-response studies demonstrated that choline was also stimulatory for megakaryocyte colony formation (CFU-Mk), 26% at 5 mM. Erythroid precursor stem cells, CFU-E/BFU-E, were reduced significantly (10-50%) at all choline concentrations tested (1-50 mM). These studies document the ability of choline to influence hematopoiesis, and provide further evidence that cholinergic mechanisms may be important in the control of steady-state hematopoiesis.